Golden Axe

"How to lose friends and aggravate people"

Sticking on extra bits.

This is a game that's haunted me right from when I was a whee lad of five and was playing the comador 64 version. A few years later, we bought an Amiga, and yet again I was treated to the site of scantily clad heroes clobbering their way through an army of enemies. More recently I found a second hand copy of the game for my Megadrive, and remembering all the funit had given me in the past, decided to take up the quest once again.

As a game it plays much like the previous ones, the graphics and sound are a slight step down from the Amiga, but as a pluss there are extra levels, a duel mode and an increase in difficulty, all of which will keep you coming back for a while.

Oh no! the world needs saving again!

the plot to this game is fairly laughable even by the standards of walk along beat-em-ups. The land has been invaded by the Villainous Death Adder and his army of assorted nasties. Death Adder has stormed the royal castle and captured the King and Princess, but more importantly has got his mits on the mystical Golden Axe, a powerfull weapon of unimaginable power, which will give him the power to be powerfull. We're not told precisely why Death Adder has done this, in fact for all we know he could be a progressive social reformer bent on overthrowing the fudal system. Death Adders motives asside, in the game you play as one of three charactors, all of whome lost relatives to Death Adder somewhere along the line, but instead of seaking bereavement counceling they plan to pound Death Adder into a bloody pulp and get back the Golden Axe.

The game attempts to provide more background in the intermission sequences, with text telling you where your going next, but in general this's too short to really evoke a sense of a real world or story. I would love to see some dialogue in an upgraded version of this game, and possibley a bit more on the backgrounds too, which would help bring the minimal plot more into prominance.

Cross the planes of pixels to the city of animation.
the graphics in this game aren't particularly special, and as I stated in the introduction, are actually a step down from the amiga or arcade versions. about on par with Alien Storm, the backdrops are a tad dark, and sometimes I found the enemies didn't have enough difference in colours from the backdrops to be visible. One single colour is often used for the enemies as well. On the other hand the magic spells are always nice to look at, and I love the lighting effects whenever a boss comes along. In general the graphics are about what you'd expect from the early Megadrive.

I shal rejoice in the screams of my foes.

The sound is a tad ropy, the slashing weapon noises and hits are okay, but the voice samples are grainy and unrealistic, given the Megadrive's slightly defficient sound chip. An odd factor about the sound, I thought was the way your charactor thuds heavily to the ground every time you get knocked down, while the enemies are silent. The magic sound effects are actually quite nice, with different explosions and lightning sounds, and when playing with the volume up the high level magic is actually quite an experience.

The songs of the epic.

The music in this game is one of it's better points. While the Megadrive can't really do the arcade tunes justice, it has a damn good go, and in many places succeeds. the music ranges from semi-orchestral balads such as the first level theme, to more techno tracks that show this game's origin in the 80's. Some tracks really stand out for their quality and atmosphere, such as the final level theme and the first level theme, and while the Megadrive lacks the base to bring them off, they still sound fairly epic. We can hope that a remix would improve this area as well.

One minor fault I have with the music is the reused tracks. the level one threme is only used once in the entire game, while the music to level two is used in many other places. I think the tracks should have been more evenly spread out throughout the game, so that you don't soon become tired of them.

Your head shall be famous across the land.

The gameplay is a classic of the walk along beat-em-up style, with the usual attack and jump buttons. Golden axe was one of the first games in this genre to feature a run maneuver, something that would become standard for games like rival turf and Double Dragon Advanced. The system of powering up magic was also highly unusual, but sinse your magic was all used at once, you didn't really have the oppertunity to employ your spells strategically. This is one element that is expanded in the second game, but would have been a nice addition to the first. The computer ai is also set higher than on the Amiga version, so expect charactors to perform flying attacks and even jumps, in fact when surrounded by more than three enemies it's nerely impossible not to get hit. A litle practice however is all that's needed to out wit the computer, and once you understand how the Ai works, the game becomes laughabley easy.

People have regularly complained that this game needs more to distinguish the three heroes. However once one learns all their moves --- especially the back hit, the Dwarf and the amazon become completely different play stiles. It is just a shame that the fifth wheel barbarian couldn't have been given something more interesting to do, or even removed entirely from the game in exchange for some extra content. Speaking of content, while the lack of a difficulty may put some off, the Megadrive version does have some nice additions, namely the duel mode and the game's ending. Once you defeat Death Adder you'll descover that the battle doesn't end here, and you'll embark upon one of the most fun parts of the game, unique to this version. Another welcome addition is the duel mode, which is a great way to practice your stratogies and features a new enemy. I particularly like the way that the time of each bout in the duel mode changes, so at the start you are fighting in the morning sun, and by the final match your benieth moonlight.

People say this game lacks in moves and specialization, and when compared to some later game such as Streets of Rage 2, it probably does. but Golden Axe has a charm all it's own, and the experience of pounding fantasy enemies is not one to be mist.

Summation.

Golden Axe was the original. But there is more reason to play it than simple historical interest. It has it's share of flaws, but it's also a fun experience in it's own right, and one which I'd encourage any fan of this genre to try out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05